Candida Diet Friendly Canned Tomatoes

Tomatoes are ingredient that I use frequently in my candida diet recipes. I prefer using fresh tomatoes over canned any day but using fresh tomatoes in every single recipe is very inconvenient. When I first went on the candida diet I abandoned all use of canned tomato products after I quickly discovered that at least 95% of canned tomatoes in the supermarket contained citric acid. Citric acid is a preservative that is created by means of fermentation. Fermentation is a process where yeast and or bacteria is added to a substance. This is one of the reasons that citric acid is prohibited on the candida diet. Additionally, citric acid is usually derived from a sugar or carbohydrate sources that are prohibited on the candida diet.

Many candida diet recipes that I encountered would instruct me to use canned tomatoes without citric acid but this really annoyed because as far as I knew this didn’t exist. These recipes never mentioned a brand name or gave me a clue of where I could find canned tomato products without citric acid. I started to study the labels on the different brands in the store to see if canned tomatoes without citric acid did actually exist. I just knew that I would leave the store defeated and be doomed to order canned tomatoes without citric acid via the Internet for a pretty penny no doubt. To my delight there were actually a few brands in the store (I usually go to Shoprite) that did not include citric acid. Many brands such as Hunt’s and RedPack use citric acid in all of their canned tomato products but with a few of the other brands the use of citric acid varies depending on the type of canned tomato product. So the following is a summary of the canned tomato products that I recommend for the candida diet. If you have found other canned tomato products without citric acid please feel free to leave a comment. This is invaluable information for the candida dieter and will make candida diet cooking a bit easier for us all.

Candida Diet Friendly Canned Tomatoes

Some days you just don’t feel like chopping. Recently, I feel like all I do is chop the entire day. I am always busy chopping this or that for recipe after recipe and there are times when I just don’t want to chop another thing. Until recently I would always chop fresh tomatoes if I needed them for a recipe. I use chopped tomatoes often for things like ratatouille, fixins for tacos or to make salsa. I would get caught without fresh tomatoes often and become frustrated. I usually did not feel like running to the store in the middle of the dinner rush and would have to switch gears. I yearned for the convenience of using canned chopped tomatoes but I was having a hard time finding a brand that did not contain any preservatives and therefore would be safe for the candida diet. Calcium chloride, salt and citric acid are the most prevalent preservatives in canned tomatoes that are prohibited on the candida diet.

I was fortunate enough to find Pomi Chopped Tomatoes in the supermarket one day. The only ingredient in these tomatoes is tomatoes and I am so happy to have this as an option now. I am able to throw together the recipes that require chopped tomatoes almost effortlessly. Additionally, I do not have to worry about my tomatoes going bad or running out of them. I just keep a couple of boxes of Pomi Chopped Tomatoes in the cabinet and I am covered. If you have been looking for yeast free chopped tomatoes I urge you to give these a try.Luigi Vitelli

It can be hard to find a tomato sauce in the supermarket that is suitable for the candida diet. Most tomato sauce contains preservatives such as salt, calcium chloride and citric acid. Preservatives are something that those on the Candida Diet strive to avoid as many of them inadvertently contribute to the overgrowth of candida. Tomato sauce however is such a versatile ingredient and makes it’s way into many recipes. I have used tomato sauce in a variety of recipes ranging from Indian to Italian cuisine. It seems as if at least weekly I am finding a new way to use tomato sauce.

I guess I could make my own tomato sauce but I tried peeling a tomato once and it just did not go well. I stopped half way through and said “the hell with this.” I figured I would just do without. I really want to avoid ever peeling a tomato again and that is why I am so thankful that I found Pomi Strained Tomatoes. I use this product anywhere that tomato sauce is required. Pomi Strained Tomatoes contain no preservatives of any kind. It is 100% natural with the only ingredient being tomatoes. You can’t ask for much more than that. This product is completely yeast free and should be used freely on the candida diet. So the next time you are thinking of skipping a recipe because you do not have candida diet friendly tomato sauce pick up Pomi Strained Tomatoes and enjoy your delightful dish without any of the preservatives.Cento Tomato Sauce (This is a maybe as it does not have citric acid but does contain salt, I do use it sometimes)Goya Tomato Sauce (This is a maybe as it does not have citric acid but does contain salt and Modified Food Starch)
Whole TomatoesI could not find any brands but I will continue to search.

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12 comments to Candida Diet Friendly Canned Tomatoes

[...] ground beef (I used ground turkey due to a beef allergy) one 29-ounce can tomato sauce (I used Pomi Strained Tomatoes which contains no citric acid) one 29-ounce can kidney beans (with liquid) one 29-ounce can pinto [...]

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Thanks for stopping by. Unfortunately, I have never been to the UK so am not familiar with canned tomato products there. I did a quick search on Amazon UK and found that some of the Suma canned tomato products do not contain citric acid. I hope that this helps.

Please don’t assume a canned tomato product doesn’t contain citric acid because it isn’t written on the label. I did, and it turns out I was giving my son–who is allergic to it–citric acid every day in the Shoprite tomato paste I used in the dishes I prepared for him.

His doctor told me that sometimes labels don’t list citric acid, because the tomato pulp used to make the paste already had citric acid in it before it arrived in the canning facility.

My husband called Shoprite and asked, and someone from Shoprite informed us that, yes, their tomato paste does indeed contain citric acid.

It’s so unfair that I’ve been poisoning my son for years just because companies can get away with not listing all the ingredients in a product. He’s autistic because of citric acid, and he’s now in the worst state we’ve ever seen him. Hopefully getting really careful about citric acid and completely cutting out tomato paste–even if it doesn’t say citric acid on the label–will help.

Thanks so much for your comment. I am so sorry that this has happened to your son. I really appreciate your taking the time to share your experience, as I did think the ShopRite tomato paste was okay. I use it all of the time and my daughter is allergic to citric acid. I call and email many companies every day to verify any questionable ingredients listed on the labels of their products but I never thought to do this for ShopRite tomato paste because it was not listed. I will review my recommendations for tomato products in this post and get in touch of every company to see if their products also contain citric acid as I do not want to share inaccurate information. Again, I am so sorry that this happened to you and your family. You are right, is unfair and they should have to list it all ingredients on the label. I wish you the best of luck with your son’s healing process.

I just wanted to note that I love your website and it is filled with wonderful information and recipes to help me along with my new founded allergy to candida yeast and two other fungi. I was just diagnosed with having an allergy to yeast per a skin prick test by my allergist. I have started my journey on changing my diet and starting my allergy injections soon. I came across citric acid, which from what I’ve read is a “BIG NO NO” from the aspergillus mold family, which I’m also allergic to that as well. I have a hard time drinking water by itself, so I’ve been drinking those powdered flavored packets that I’ve been adding to water. I just happened to look at the ingredients and the first ingredient is citric acid! I am honestly flabbergasted by this discovery. I know I can add fresh lemons or limes to my water and it will take some time getting used to. Do you have any other suggestions to help make water flavorable? I am confused about citric acid. Like I stated earlier; I’ve read citric acid comes from mold, but I’ve also read that it also contains strains of yeast. Is this the same thing? I am struggling with this diet and I feel food deprived. I am still having cravings for sugar (Mountain Dew, sweet tea, Little Debbie snacks, etc.) and I feel very lost on this diet. I have gone through all of your recipes and I look forward to making them!!

I avoid citric acid due to allergies to sugar cane and corn.
I sent Contadina a question “why are some of your products labels include citric acid and some don’t (IE: tomato paste). I never received an answer. As of this fall, I can no longer find ANY tomato products that are free of citric acid. Time to grow MORE tomatoes.

I FINALLY found tomato paste without citric acid on Amazon. Name of product is Kirkland Signature Organic Tomato Paste. I will use this to make ketchup, tomato soup and stews for my daughter who is on a highly restricted elimination diet which specifies avoidance of yeast among other things.